Today was cleaning day at our house. I watched a BBC TV show this morning called Houses Behaving Badly and after seeing the grimy house which they cleaned I went into a frenzy and brought all the beddings and the sofa cushions outside, airied them out and washed all the covers.
On the show they say you should change your sheets every week. I have to admit I don't so after hearing about the dust mites I figured I'd air the mattresses too... Wille's is small enough for the deck chair.
Our double one stayed inside, window wide open, vacuumed and aired by lifting the middle up to let the air circulate underneath. I promised myself I'll bring it outside too one of these days.
My livingoom slip covers are cotton. The one on the sofa actually says dry clean only but I toss them in the washing mashine all the time anyway. A good idea is to get two sets. I did that so when one set is dirty and I don't have time to wash it right away the other one can be used. Another thing if possible is to have reversible cushions. If one of my cushions gets dirty and the rest of the sofa is still ok I can just flip that cushion. A great way of getting the covers on is to put them on while they're still damp. Mine are quite a wrestle to put on when I switch from one set to the other.
Some of you have asked how I keep my sofa and armchairs so white but if you look closely enough when they are not newly laundered you will see that after a while they are not 100% white... If I get a small stain on them, like a fleck of chocolate I spot clean, take a dampened micro fiber rag and rub the stain and then rinse with a bit of water. If my cats walk all over with dirty paws, which they do all the time, I wait until the paw prints have dried. That way I don't spread the wet dirt out and into the fabric, but it can usually be brushed off.
Once a week I vacuum the sofa and armchairs and do a bit of boxing on the cushions to fluff them. I'd say I wash the sofa covers about every two or three months or so and the armchair ones about every month/six weeks as the cushions seat cushions on them are not reversible.
I finished my cleaning frenzy off by vaccuming the upstairs floors and mopping them with a damp rag with cleaning solution and white vinegar. I'm still not done for today though because now I need to make the beds and put the covers back on. Might change the colorscheme around a little now that everything is clean and the pillow covers are off. I recently bought some new fabrics on Etsy so I might sew a few covers tomorrow in between painting windows. We'll see.
